TWO men have admitted a brutal attack in York which left a man with extensive facial injuries.

Robert McQueen, 34, and Edward Robert Phillips, 35, subjected their victim to a prolonged kicking and beating when he objected to one of them urinating in the street, a court has heard.

They put the man to the ground three times, where both of them kicked him as he was lying down. They also punched him several times, Simon Ostler said in prosecution.

The victim had been sitting on a bench in Stonebow at 3.20am on January 23 waiting for a taxi home when the pair arrived and Phillips urinated against a pole.

York Press:

The victim suggested that if he had to urinate in the street, he should do it down an alleyway and the pair responded by attacking him.

“I didn’t expect the reaction I got,” the man said in a victim impact statement. “It certainly didn’t warrant kicking and punching in the way they did.”

Earlier in a police statement, he had said about his comment to Phillips: “I said it in a calm, non-confrontational way,” adding that he was four or five metres away from the pair when he said it.

Two months after the attack, he faces thousands of pounds in dental bills and may lose some of his teeth. He also had a cut that needed stitching to the inside of his lip and other injuries, including facial injuries. York Magistrates' Court heard.

McQueen, of Bishophill Senior, central York, and Phillips, of Giles Avenue, Heworth, both pleaded guilty to causing actual bodily harm.

After viewing CCTV of the incident, magistrates decided the case was too serious for them to deal with and committed the pair to York Crown Court for sentence.

Graham Parkin for McQueen and Mark Whitfield for Phillips reserved their mitigations for the hearing in front of a judge, which is expected to be on April 13. Mr Whitfield said the chef had behaved in an aggressive manner and Phillips had initially behaved in self-defence, but had gone too far.

Both defendants were released on bail until the crown court appearance.

Mr Ostler said the victim, who works as a freelance chef, had had to turn down work because of the attack.